Secure text-to-voice messaging

ABSTRACT

A personal voice model is created using a person&#39;s voice, essentially, voice cloning. When user wants to send a message to another person from his mobile phone or similar device, the user types the message and it is converted to a speech message using the voice model created. The speech message is delivered either to a voicemail or another medium which accepts a voice message. The text can be converted to a different language as well and send a voice message in a different language.

FIELD

The present application relates to technically inventive, non-routinesolutions that are necessarily rooted in computer technology and thatproduce concrete technical improvements.

BACKGROUND

People frequently send text messages to each other using their mobiletelephones. As understood herein, this is less than optimum forrecipients with vision impairments, and for recipients who may prefer adifferent language. A voice-to-voice messaging system may resolve this,but senders with speech impediments can find this frustrating.

SUMMARY

Present principles recognize that a message input as text can beconverted to voice using the sender's own voice, to be delivered to anaudio playback device of a recipient either in the sender's or therecipient's language. Present principles further recognize, however,that maintaining a model of a sender's voice that can be used togenerate synthesized speech from text poses security challenges, astheft of the model can be used for harmful purposes.

Accordingly, an assembly includes at least one processor and at leastone display configured to communicate with the processor. The processoris programmed to access instructions executable by the processor toexecute a messaging app for sending messages from a sender torecipients. The instructions are executable to employ the messaging appto receive text input, convert the text input to a voice signalsynthesized to be in the sender's voice, and send the voice signal to atleast one recipient device for audible playback on the recipient device.

In examples, the instructions can be executable to compare the textmessage to a list of terms, and based at least in part on the compare,determine whether to convert the text message to the voice signal. Thelist of terms can include a blacklist, and the instructions can beexecutable to not convert the text message to the voice signalresponsive to the text message containing at least one term on theblacklist. In these examples, the instructions can be executable to,responsive to the text message containing at least one term on theblacklist, present on the assembly a warning. In addition, oralternatively, the instructions can be executable to, responsive to thetext message containing at least one term on the blacklist, disable theassembly at least from sending voice signals.

In other examples, the list of terms can include a whitelist, and theinstructions can be executable to not convert the text message to thevoice signal responsive to any term in the text message containing notbeing on the whitelist.

In embodiments, the voice signal is generated using a model of thesender's voice, and the model of the sender's voice resides only on theassembly and on no other computing devices. For added security, theinstructions may be executable to authenticate a logged-on user prior toemploying the messaging app to transmit the voice signal.

In another aspect, a machine-implemented method includes receiving textinput at a sender device and determining whether the text input containsa blacklisted term. Responsive to determining that the text inputcontains a blacklisted term, the method includes locking use of thesender device pending entry of an unlock code, or presenting a warningon the sender device, or both locking use of the sender device pendingentry of an unlock code and presenting a warning on the sender device.In contrast, responsive to determining that the text input does notcontain a blacklisted term, the method converts the text input to avoice signal and sending the voice signal to at least one recipientdevice.

In another aspect, a device includes at least one computer storage thatis not a transitory signal and that in turn includes instructionsexecutable by at least one processor to receive text input and identifywhether the text input contains at least one blacklisted term.Responsive to the text input containing at least one blacklisted term,the instructions are executable lock use of a sender device into whichthe text input was entered, or present a warning on the sender device,or both lock use of the sender device and present a warning on thesender device. On the other hand, responsive to the text input notcontaining at least one blacklisted term, the instructions areexecutable to convert the text input to a voice signal using a model ofa voice of a sender associated with the sender device, and transmit thevoice signal to a recipient device.

The details of the present disclosure, both as to its structure andoperation, can be best understood in reference to the accompanyingdrawings, in which like reference numerals refer to like parts, and inwhich:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example system including an example inconsistent with present principles;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of example overall logic consistent with presentprinciples;

FIGS. 3-6 are screen shots of example user interfaces (UIs) to set upsecurity measures for the sender's voice model; and

FIG. 7 is a screen shot of an example UI to input text and have it sentas a voice message in the sender's voice to a recipient.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

This disclosure relates generally to computer ecosystems includingaspects of consumer electronics (CE) device-based user information incomputer ecosystems. A system herein may include server and clientcomponents, connected over a network such that data may be exchangedbetween the client and server components. The client components mayinclude one or more computing devices including portable televisions(e.g. smart TVs, Internet-enabled TVs), portable computers such aslaptops and tablet computers, and other mobile devices including smartphones and additional examples discussed below. These client devices mayoperate with a variety of operating environments. For example, some ofthe client computers may employ, as examples, operating systems fromMicrosoft or Unix or Apple, Inc. or Google. These operating environmentsmay be used to execute one or more browsing programs, such as a browsermade by Microsoft or Google or Mozilla or other browser program that canaccess web applications hosted by the Internet servers discussed below.

Servers may include one or more processors executing instructions thatconfigure the servers to receive and transmit data over a network suchas the Internet. Or, a client and server can be connected over a localintranet or a virtual private network. A server or controller may beinstantiated by a game console such as a Sony Playstation®, a personalcomputer, etc.

Information may be exchanged over a network between the clients andservers. To this end and for security, servers and/or clients caninclude firewalls, load balancers, temporary storages, and proxies, andother network infrastructure for reliability and security. One or moreservers may form an apparatus that implement methods of providing asecure community such as an online social website to network members.

As used herein, instructions refer to computer-implemented steps forprocessing information in the system. Instructions can be implemented insoftware, firmware or hardware and include any type of programmed stepundertaken by components of the system.

A processor may be any conventional general-purpose single- ormulti-chip processor that can execute logic by means of various linessuch as address lines, data lines, and control lines and registers andshift registers.

Software modules described by way of the flow charts and user interfacesherein can include various sub-routines, procedures, etc. Withoutlimiting the disclosure, logic stated to be executed by a particularmodule can be redistributed to other software modules and/or combinedtogether in a single module and/or made available in a shareablelibrary.

Present principles described herein can be implemented as hardware,software, firmware, or combinations thereof; hence, illustrativecomponents, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps are set forth in termsof their functionality.

Further to what has been alluded to above, logical blocks, modules, andcircuits described below can be implemented or performed with ageneral-purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), a fieldprogrammable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device suchas an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), discrete gate ortransistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combinationthereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A processorcan be implemented by a controller or state machine or a combination ofcomputing devices.

The functions and methods described below, when implemented in software,can be written in an appropriate language such as but not limited toJava C# or C++, and can be stored on or transmitted through acomputer-readable storage medium such as a random access memory (RAM),read-only memory (ROM), electrically erasable programmable read-onlymemory (EEPROM), compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM) or other opticaldisk storage such as digital versatile disc (DVD), magnetic disk storageor other magnetic storage devices including removable thumb drives, etc.A connection may establish a computer-readable medium. Such connectionscan include, as examples, hard-wired cables including fiber optics andcoaxial wires and digital subscriber line (DSL) and twisted pair wires.

Components included in one embodiment can be used in other embodimentsin any appropriate combination. For example, any of the variouscomponents described herein and/or depicted in the Figures may becombined, interchanged or excluded from other embodiments.

“A system having at least one of A, B, and C” (likewise “a system havingat least one of A, B, or C” and “a system having at least one of A, B,C”) includes systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and Btogether, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and Ctogether, etc.

Now specifically referring to FIG. 1, an example ecosystem 10 is shown,which may include one or more of the example devices mentioned above anddescribed further below in accordance with present principles. The firstof the example devices included in the system 10 is an example primarydisplay device, and in the embodiment shown is an audio video displaydevice (AVDD) 12 such as but not limited to an Internet-enabled TV.Thus, the AVDD 12 alternatively may be an appliance or household item,e.g. computerized Internet enabled refrigerator, washer, or dryer. TheAVDD 12 alternatively may also be a computerized Internet enabled(“smart”) telephone, a tablet computer, a notebook computer, a wearablecomputerized device such as, e.g., a computerized Internet-enabledwatch, a computerized Internet-enabled bracelet, other computerizedInternet-enabled devices, a computerized Internet-enabled music player,computerized Internet-enabled head phones, a computerizedInternet-enabled implantable device such as an implantable skin device,etc. Regardless, it is to be understood that the AVDD 12 is configuredto undertake present principles (e.g. communicate with other CE devicesto undertake present principles, execute the logic described herein, andperform any other functions and/or operations described herein).

Accordingly, to undertake such principles the AVDD 12 can be establishedby some or all of the components shown in FIG. 1. For example, the AVDD12 can include one or more displays 14 that may be implemented by a highdefinition or ultra-high definition “4K” or “8K” (or higher resolution)flat screen and that may be touch-enabled for receiving consumer inputsignals via touches on the display. The AVDD 12 may include one or morespeakers 16 for outputting audio in accordance with present principles,and at least one additional input device 18 such as a keyboard or keypador an audio receiver/microphone for e.g. entering audible commands tothe AVDD 12 to control the AVDD 12. The example AVDD 12 may also includeone or more network interfaces 20 for communication over at least onenetwork 22 such as the Internet, an WAN, an LAN, etc. under control ofone or more processors 24. Thus, the interface 20 may be, withoutlimitation, a Wi-Fi transceiver, which is an example of a wirelesscomputer network interface. It is to be understood that the processor 24controls the AVDD 12 to undertake present principles, including theother elements of the AVDD 12 described herein such as e.g. controllingthe display 14 to present images thereon and receiving input therefrom.Furthermore, note the network interface 20 may be, e.g., a wired orwireless modem or router, or other appropriate interface such as, e.g.,a wireless telephony transceiver, or Wi-Fi transceiver as mentionedabove, etc.

In addition to the foregoing, the AVDD 12 may also include one or moreinput ports 26 such as, e.g., a USB port to physically connect (e.g.using a wired connection) to another CE device and/or a headphone portto connect headphones to the AVDD 12 for presentation of audio from theAVDD 12 to a consumer through the headphones. The AVDD 12 may furtherinclude one or more computer memories 28 that are not transitorysignals, such as disk-based or solid-state storage (including but notlimited to flash memory). Also, in some embodiments, the AVDD 12 caninclude a position or location receiver such as but not limited to acellphone receiver, GPS receiver and/or altimeter 30 that is configuredto e.g. receive geographic position information from at least onesatellite or cellphone tower and provide the information to theprocessor 24 and/or determine an altitude at which the AVDD 12 isdisposed in conjunction with the processor 24. However, it is to beunderstood that that another suitable position receiver other than acellphone receiver, GPS receiver and/or altimeter may be used inaccordance with present principles to e.g. determine the location of theAVDD 12 in all three dimensions.

Continuing the description of the AVDD 12, in some embodiments the AVDD12 may include one or more cameras 32 that may be, e.g., a thermalimaging camera, a digital camera such as a webcam, and/or a cameraintegrated into the AVDD 12 and controllable by the processor 24 togather pictures/images and/or video in accordance with presentprinciples. Also included on the AVDD 12 may be a Bluetooth transceiver34 and other Near Field Communication (NFC) element 36 for communicationwith other devices using Bluetooth and/or NFC technology, respectively.An example NFC element can be a radio frequency identification (RFID)element.

Further still, the AVDD 12 may include one or more auxiliary sensors 37(e.g., a motion sensor such as an accelerometer, gyroscope, cyclometer,or a magnetic sensor, an infrared (IR) sensor, an optical sensor, aspeed and/or cadence sensor, a gesture sensor (e.g. for sensing gesturecommand, etc.) providing input to the processor 24. The AVDD 12 mayinclude still other sensors such as e.g. one or more climate sensors 38(e.g. barometers, humidity sensors, wind sensors, light sensors,temperature sensors, etc.) and/or one or more biometric sensors 40providing input to the processor 24. In addition to the foregoing, it isnoted that the AVDD 12 may also include an infrared (IR) transmitterand/or IR receiver and/or IR transceiver 42 such as an IR dataassociation (IRDA) device. A battery (not shown) may be provided forpowering the AVDD 12.

Still referring to FIG. 1, in addition to the AVDD 12, the system 10 mayinclude one or more other CE device types. In one example, a first CEdevice 44 may be used to send messages to a second CE device 46 mayinclude similar components as the first CE device 44 and hence will notbe discussed in detail. In the example shown, only two CE devices 44, 46are shown, it being understood that fewer or greater devices may beused.

The example non-limiting first CE device 44 may be established by anyone of the above-mentioned devices, for example, a portable wirelesslaptop computer or tablet computer or notebook computer or mobiletelephone, and accordingly may have one or more of the componentsdescribed below. The second CE device 46 without limitation may beestablished by a wireless telephone. The second CE device 46 mayimplement a portable hand-held remote control (RC).

The first CE device 44 may include one or more displays 50 that may betouch-enabled for receiving consumer input signals via touches on thedisplay. The first CE device 44 may include one or more speakers 52 foroutputting audio in accordance with present principles, and at least oneadditional input device 54 such as a keypad or keyboard or audioreceiver/microphone for entering audible commands to the first CE device44 to control the device 44. The example first CE device 44 may alsoinclude one or more network interfaces 56 for communication over thenetwork 22 under control of one or more CE device processors 58. Thus,the interface 56 may be, without limitation, a Wi-Fi transceiver, whichis an example of a wireless computer network interface. It is to beunderstood that the processor 58 may control the first CE device 44 toundertake present principles, including the other elements of the firstCE device 44 described herein such as e.g. controlling the display 50 topresent images thereon and receiving input therefrom. Furthermore, notethe network interface 56 may be, e.g., a wired or wireless modem orrouter, or other appropriate interface such as, e.g., a wirelesstelephony transceiver, or Wi-Fi transceiver as mentioned above, etc.

In addition to the foregoing, the first CE device 44 may also includeone or more input ports 60 such as, e.g., a USB port to physicallyconnect (for instance, using a wired connection) to another CE deviceand/or a headphone port to connect headphones to the first CE device 44for presentation of audio from the first CE device 44 to a consumerthrough the headphones. The first CE device 44 may further include oneor more computer memories 62 such as disk-based or solid-state storage.Also in some embodiments, the first CE device 44 can include a positionor location receiver such as but not limited to a cellphone and/or GPSreceiver and/or altimeter 64 that is configured to e.g. receivegeographic position information from at least one satellite and/or celltower, using triangulation, and provide the information to the CE deviceprocessor 58 and/or determine an altitude at which the first CE device44 is disposed in conjunction with the CE device processor 58. However,it is to be understood that that another suitable position receiverother than a cellphone and/or GPS receiver and/or altimeter may be usedin accordance with present principles to determine the location of thefirst CE device 44 in e.g. all three dimensions.

Continuing the description of the first CE device 44, in someembodiments the first CE device 44 may include one or more cameras 66that may be, e.g., a thermal imaging camera, a digital camera such as aweb cam, and/or a camera integrated into the first CE device 44 andcontrollable by the CE device processor 58 to gather pictures/imagesand/or video in accordance with present principles. Also included on thefirst CE device 44 may be a Bluetooth transceiver 68 and other NearField Communication (NFC) element 70 for communication with otherdevices using Bluetooth and/or NFC technology, respectively. An exampleNFC element can be a radio frequency identification (RFID) element.

Further still, the first CE device 44 may include one or more auxiliarysensors 72 (e.g., a motion sensor such as an accelerometer, gyroscope,cyclometer, or a magnetic sensor, an infrared (IR) sensor, an opticalsensor, a speed and/or cadence sensor, a gesture sensor (for sensinggesture command, etc.) providing input to the CE device processor 58.The first CE device 44 may include still other sensors such as e.g. oneor more climate sensors 74 (e.g. barometers, humidity sensors, windsensors, light sensors, temperature sensors, etc.) and/or one or morebiometric sensors 76 providing input to the CE device processor 58. Inaddition to the foregoing, it is noted that in some embodiments thefirst CE device 44 may also include an infrared (IR) transmitter and/orIR receiver and/or IR transceiver 78 such as an IR data association(IRDA) device. A battery (not shown) may be provided for powering thefirst CE device 44.

The second CE device 46 may include some or all of the components shownfor the CE device 44.

At least one server 80 may include at least one server processor 82, atleast one computer memory 84 such as disk-based or solid-state storage,and at least one network interface 86 that, under control of the serverprocessor 82, allows for communication with the other devices of FIG. 1over the network 22, and indeed may facilitate communication betweenservers and client devices in accordance with present principles. Notethat the network interface 86 may be, e.g., a wired or wireless modem orrouter, Wi-Fi transceiver, or other appropriate interface such as, e.g.,a wireless telephony transceiver.

Accordingly, in some embodiments the server 80 may be an Internet serverand may include and perform “cloud” functions such that the devices ofthe system 10 may access a “cloud” environment via the server 80 inexample embodiments. Or, the server 80 may be implemented by a gameconsole or other computer in the same room as the other devices shown inFIG. 1 or nearby.

Now referring to FIG. 2, commencing at block 200 a user seeking to senda message (“sender”) to the device of a recipient is authenticated asdescribed further below. The sender device and recipient device may beestablished by the CE devices 44, 46 respectively. Note that thisauthentication can be in addition to an initial computer log on. Forexample, the authentication at block 200 may be required every time amessaging application (“app”) is opened to input a message to arecipient.

Moving to block 202, upon successful authentication a message userinterface (UI) is presented on a display of the device of the sender. Anexample message UI is described further below. The message UI enablesthe sender to enter at block 204 not only the recipient device address(typically from a contact list or input directly) but also text input ofthe message sought to be conveyed and the language for the text message,once converted to voice, ultimately to be played back in.

If desired, the logic may move from block 204 to block 206, in which amachine learning model is executed to predict an emotion or sentiment ofthe text input at block 204. For example, based on the content of thetext, the machine learning model may output an emotion indication ofhappy, or sad, excitement, joy, fun, peacefulness, etc. Withoutlimitation and by way of example only, an example technique for the stepat block 206 is presented in Alm et al., “Emotions from Text: MachineLearning for Text-Based Emotional Prediction”, Proceedings of HumanLanguage Technology Conference and Conference on Empirical Methods inNatural Language Processing, pages 579-586, Association forComputational Linguistics, 2005, incorporated herein by reference anddisclosed in the instant file history.

From block 206 the logic may move to block 208 to convert the text tospeech in the user-desired language discussed elsewhere herein. In theexample shown, the logic may flow from block 208 to decision diamond 210to determine whether any word or term or phrase is on a blacklist thatthe sender can have previously established according to disclosure belowor that may be established by the author of the app or other entity.This is a security feature in the event that the sender's device islost, stolen, or otherwise compromised and sought to be used fornefarious purposes by a hacker texting in problematic messages to bedelivered in the sender's voice, impersonating the sender for illpurposes. This feature also saves the sender from unwittingly sending anembarrassing message owing to a mis-typed text input.

If the text message is found to contain a blacklisted term, the logiccan move to block 212 to either present a prompt on the sender's deviceto change the input message, or to disable the sender device altogetherpending input of a correct code such as a personal identification number(PIN). The logic may then loop back to block 202 to present the messageUI again, assuming that the PIN is properly entered in examples thatdisable the device upon detection of a blacklisted term.

However, if the message contains no blacklisted terms, the logic maymove to block 214 in which the speech signal is synthesized to be in thesender's voice using tonality and other emotion information from block216, which is derived from the step at block 206. Additionally, ifdesired ambient audio from sound in the user's vicinity may be capturedat block 218 and mixed with the speech from block 214 at block 220 for amore realistic effect. At block 222 the voice message is sent to therecipient's device in the sender-designated language. In this latterregard, if the designated language is different than the language of theinput text message, the input text message may first be converted totext in the designated language and then converted to a voice signal.

At this point it should be noted that in lieu of a blacklist offorbidden terms at decision diamond 210, a more restrictive and hencemore secure whitelist test may be employed in which the input textmessage is examined and passed to block 214 only if all terms in thetext message are on the whitelist, with any term not on the whitelistresulting in the logic moving to block 212.

It may also be noted that the step at block 214 and in other blocks maybe executed by a server communicating with the sender and recipientdevices and having access to the sender's voice model or by therecipient device, but more preferably for security reasons is executedlocally by the sender device. In this way the sender's voice model isnot disseminated onto a network, further reducing the risk of a databreach that could expose the sender's voice model to unauthorized use byhackers.

In translating the text to a voice message in the sender's voice, aneural network such as but not limited to Adobe Voco or DeepMind®WaveNet from Google may be used. These neural networks acquire voicesamples from the sender as a training set to train the neural networksto generate sound-alike voice with phonemes derived from the input textmessage that were not present in the training set.

FIGS. 3-6 illustrate example setup UIs that may be employed. A UI 300 inFIG. 3 includes a prompt 302 for the user to set up the messenger app bytraining a neural network hosted by the sender device on the sendinguser's voice. A prompt 304 may appear for the user to speak any phrasedesired or to speak stock phrases which may be presented on the displayand read by the user. If the spoken input is unclear or otherwiseinsufficient, the user may be prompted to repeat at 306. Also, iffurther data is needed for the training set, the user may be prompted at308 to speak another phrase. Once the neural network has acquiredsufficient training data, it is trained to produce voice output based ontext input, and a “done” indicator 310 may be presented.

FIG. 4 illustrates a UI 400 that can be used to set up authenticationused at block 200 in FIG. 2. A prompt 402 may be presented for the userto select a desired authentication technique. The user may select at 404to use fingerprint authentication and may be prompted to place hisfinger on the touch display to input the template against which futurefingerprints for authentication will be tested. The user may select at406 to use face recognition authentication and may be prompted to takehis photo or import his photo to input the template against which futureimages for authentication will be tested. The user may select at 408 touse password authentication and may be prompted to enter a password toinput the template against which future passwords for authenticationwill be tested. The user may select at 410 a combination of the aboveexample techniques for multi-factor authentication. Key fob techniquesalso may be used in which a keying electronic device such as a fob mustbe within NFC distance of the sender device for authentication to beenabled.

FIG. 5 illustrates a blacklist setup for use at decision diamond 206 inFIG. 2. This feature recognizes that in personal text communicationbetween friends, certain terms or topics probably are seldom if everused or discussed, but a hacker of a compromised sender device mightseek to use such terms or topics to embarrass the sender by making itseem that the sender has spoken something he has not. For example, thesender may anticipate never using racial epithets or vulgar terms intext messages, or never to text discussions of certain political issuesor personalities, and so names of political or religious or culturaltopics or personalities may be entered into the blacklist.

The UI 500 may include a prompt 502 to set up the blacklist forsecurity. A prompt 504 may be presented for the user to enter excludedterms into the blacklist in a field 506. Also, the user may be enabledto select a selector 508 to be warned if any text is detected to containa term on the blacklist. The user also may be enabled to select aselector 510 to disable the sender device upon detection of ablacklisted term in input text until a code such as a PIN is entered. APIN may be entered into a field 512 to be used as a template comparesubsequently entered PINs against to unlock the sender device afterdetection of a blacklisted term.

FIG. 6 illustrates a UI 600 prompting a user at 602 to establish theabove-discussed alternative whitelist. A prompt 604 may be presented forthe user to enter terms into a field 606 of whitelisted terms. Asdiscussed above, text input is compared and rejected unless it includesonly whitelisted terms.

FIG. 7 illustrates a post-setup operational UI 700 to enable a user toinput a text message and have it delivered to a recipient as a voicemessage in the sender's voice. The user first may be prompted at 702 toauthenticate himself using the selected authentication technique(s) fromFIG. 4. An indication 704 may be presented upon successfulauthentication. A user may then enter the recipient address at 706 andrespond to a prompt 708 to enter the desired text message into a field710. The user may also select a language at 712, if different than thelanguage of the input text, he would like his message to be delivered,and then select a send selector 714. The text message is firsttranslated to the selected different language, if any, then converted toa voice signal in the sender's voice by the neural network andtransmitted to the recipient address.

While particular techniques are herein shown and described in detail, itis to be understood that the subject matter which is encompassed by thepresent application is limited only by the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. An assembly, comprising: at least one processor;at least one display configured to communicate with the processor; theprocessor being programmed to: execute a messaging app for sendingmessages from a sender device to recipient devices, the instructionsbeing executable to employ the messaging app to: receive text input atthe sender device from a sender; responsive to the text input containinga blacklisted term, locking use of the sender device for executing themessaging app pending entry of an unlock code, and otherwise send avoice signal converted from the text input and synthesized to be in thesender's voice to at least one recipient device for audible playback onthe recipient device.
 2. The assembly of claim 1, wherein the processoris programmed to: compare the text input to a list of terms; and basedat least in part on the compare, determine whether to convert the textinput to the voice signal.
 3. The assembly of claim 2, wherein the listof terms comprises a blacklist, and the processor is programmed to notconvert the text input to the voice signal responsive to the text inputcontaining at least one term on the blacklist.
 4. The assembly of claim3, wherein the processor is programmed to, responsive to the text inputcontaining at least one term on the blacklist, present on the assembly awarning.
 5. The assembly of claim 3, wherein the processor is programmedto, responsive to the text input containing at least one term on theblacklist, disable the assembly at least from sending voice signalspending input of a correct code.
 6. The assembly of claim 2, wherein thelist of terms comprises a whitelist, and the processor is programmed tonot convert the text input to the voice signal responsive to any term inthe text input containing not being on the whitelist.
 7. The assembly ofclaim 1, wherein the voice signal is generated using a model of thesender's voice, and the model of the sender's voice resides only on theassembly and on no other computing devices.
 8. The assembly of claim 1,wherein the processor is programmed to: authenticate a logged-on userresponsive to opening the messaging app prior to employing the messagingapp to transmit the voice signal.
 9. A machine-implemented methodcomprising: receiving text input at a sender device from a sender;determining whether the text input contains a blacklisted term;responsive to determining that the text input contains a blacklistedterm, locking use of the sender device pending entry of an unlock code;and responsive to determining that the text input does not contain ablacklisted term, converting the text input to a voice signal andsending the voice signal to at least one recipient device.
 10. Theassembly of claim 1, wherein the processor is programmed to: send thevoice signal along with ambient audio from sound in the sender'svicinity mixed with the voice signal.
 11. The method of claim 9,comprising: responsive to determining that the text input contains ablacklisted term, presenting a warning on the sender device.
 12. Themethod of claim 9, comprising: converting the text input to the voicesignal using a model of the voice of the sender.
 13. A sender devicecomprising: at least one computer storage that is not a transitorysignal and that comprises instructions executable by at least oneprocessor to: receive text input from a sender associated with thesender device; identify whether the text input contains at least oneblacklisted term; responsive to the text input containing at least oneblacklisted term, lock use of the sender device into which the textinput was entered pending entry of an unlock code; responsive to thetext input not containing at least one blacklisted term, convert thetext input to a voice signal using a model of a voice of the senderassociated with the sender device; and transmit the voice signal to arecipient device.
 14. The device of claim 13, wherein the instructionsare executable to: unlock use of the sender device after locking useupon receipt of a valid code.
 15. The device of claim 13, wherein theinstructions are executable to: responsive to the text input containingat least one blacklisted term, present a warning on the sender device.16. The device of claim 13, wherein the model resides only on the senderdevice and on no other computing devices.
 17. The device of claim 13,wherein the instructions are executable to: authenticate a logged-onuser responsive to opening an app to receive the text input prior totransmitting the voice signal.
 18. The device of claim 13, comprisingthe at least one processor, the at least one processor and the computerstorage being in the sender device.